THRILLS ON TAPE

Where to find your thrill power!

METABOLIS

NONTERRAQUEOUS

MAZE MANIA demo

MOUNTAINS OF KET

ULTIMATE WARRIOR

POKEMANIA

SUMMER THRILLS!

The summer just got hotter! This issue of CRASH
is bursting with the latest and greatest stuff around on the Speccy scene,
we’ve got all the games we could lay our hands on and the third action packed
Power Tape! Unfortunately, being summer, the software world has caught
‘summer-slumpitis’, the deadly illness which results in hardly any games coming
out. Only seven — seven!! — games up for review, hopefully the situation should
improve next month. But apart from the games there’s the Magnum Light Gun which
should tickle your fancy and a host of extras, including the chance to win an
exclusive Indiana Jones jacket, in this summer bonanza edition of the magazine
that brings the action right into your own home!!

METABOLIS

How much of a softy are you? We don’t
mean ‘big-girls-blouse’ kinda softy. But do you go all squidgy round the edges
at the sight of small, cute furry creatures? Good! You’ll just love Metabolis!
And even if you aren’t much of a softy you’ll love Metabolis anyway — it’s a
cartographer’s delight! (Well, there are 150 screens which need serious
mapping. Sounds more like a nightmare...)

The story has it that the invading Kremins have transformed the
human race into a variety of little creatures. And true enough, this here
story is fact: You’ve actually been turned into a man-brained bird by these
evil aliens ( — better than a bird-brained man...). Now it’s your duty (Duty?
You’re furious!) to destroy these evil beings. You’re obviously not going to
get far as a twee bird, so you must find the potion which will restore you to
your natural self, find the wizard who will cure your heart, weakened by this
transformation, and then destroy the Kremins — all straightforward
really...

The destruction of these despicable beings can only be brought on by a
nuclear explosion — so find nuclear fuel pods, take them to the reactor room
and run/fly like hell. Doesn’t sound very Green to us!

The game area consists of a highly complex maze, about 150 screens large. As
you fly around the maze you meet a variety of different creatures most of whom
are pretty harmless. Some, like the starfish, will kill on contact. If you have
an encounter with a Kremin your energy will be sapped, so it’s best to stay out
of reach: that calls for some agility. Beware of the many traps, like the
one-ton weight which will flatten, but not kill you. Your heart is a constant
source of trouble, and you will die unless you can keep yourself topped up with
angina pills. As your energy is sapped by the evil invaders a picture of a
little bird gradually turns into a skeleton as you weaken. To reverse the trend
you must find food and grow fat again. A little red heart will begin to flash
when the strain is becoming too much (aw!) — hurry and find some more pills
before it’s too late! Who said this was fun? Look on it as a challenge and
don’t despair, it’s not all bad news, you do have a weapon — a boomerang — if
you can find it!

HAVE YOU META THE CONTROLS?

A bird in the hand is worth two joysticks. To be precise Kempston
and Sinclair sticks. Alternatively the keyboard controls are Q/W left/right, 0
for up and K to fire. Okay?

WARNING!!!! if you have had your Speccy for ages you’ll remember nasty
things called Turbo or Hyper-loads which loaded stuff in really quickly.
Unfortunately if your Speccy cassette player wasn’t aligned properly the game
continually crashed during loading. Sob.

Just to increase the challenge Metabolis has one of those loads. So,
persevere. if it doesn’t load first time twiddle your cassette heads to find
the best setting. Good Luck!

NONTERRAQUEOUS

After much argument and consultation
with Lloyd Mangram’s Long Word Dictionary we haven’t discovered what the title
of this game means, but we’ve settled on a pronunciation, and that’s
‘Non-tear-ack-you-us’. Got that?

Thankfully Nonterraqueous is only half as difficult to describe
as it is to pronounce. There is a planet (type: cold and forbidding) that is
ruled by a computer (type: schizophrenic, paranoid). It is populated by a
people (type: suppressed for too long, eg CRASHless), the unfriendly computer
is located in a mountain (type: big, cold and as yet unpenetrated). The
population (type: defined above) decide to to build a robot of their own (type:
spherical, guided, thick) and send it into the labyrinth (type: 1004 rooms, 42
levels, another cartographer’s nightmare) in order to destroy the computer
within. You (type: human, CRASH reader, smart) have to guide the robot past all
sorts of lethal obstacles (types: photon thrusters, floaters, rapid repeat
slasers, force fields, rooms of corrosive gas, bombs, rockets, more bombs, etc)
in order to reach the chamber that houses the computer.

To complete the mission successfully will require a great deal more than
just a good trigger finger. Many of the obstacles demand adventure-like
solutions, so it’s thinking positron- protective- dome time again. As your
robot moves from screen to screen it comes across some weird and wonderful
shapes dashing all over the set. These little chaps are harmless (update:
mostly harmless), they can be destroyed with laser fire, but collision with
them, or indeed with any other object, will damage your psyche level
(dictionary: for Psyche read Energy). You can recharge the energy level by
plugging into psychers. Keep a look out for objects that will help with the
various problems, some you will be able to pick up and carry, bombs, fuel pods
and the like. Larger objects may have a more immediate use, but some objects
may have undesirable effects when picked up. Below the playing area indicators
give the score, psyche, number of bombs carried and the level that you are
currently on. The authors have had the presence of mind to give an indication
of the game-completed percentage to provide good players a means of describing
to others just how clever they are (and get beaten up in the process)..

THE KET TRILOGY PART ONE

MOUNTAINS OF KET

Dear oh dear oh dear! Some ‘other’ magazines Just can’t stand
the pace can they? They’ve brought you adventure games on their covers, but
their offerings were damp squibs (ie. a firework which has been piddled on).
Now CRASH, knowing our readers are well tooled-up In the brain department,
thought long and hard on how to bring you the pinnacle of adventuring. And
we’ve come up with a winner! Incentive’s all-time great Ket Trilogy!!

As you may have guessed there are three parts to Ket, each one
more challenging than the other. So collect parts two and three on the next two
issues of CRASH! Each can be played individually, but enjoy them as a series
for maximum thrill power.

KET HISTORY

The lands of Ket have long been split into feuding groups and
have never known peace. Recently, vicious attacks have come from beyond the
range of mountains in the east — the Mountains of Ket. Worried about the state
of the land, the Lords of Ket have joined together in an attempt to put a stop
to these attacks.

Two people are the evil force behind the raids: Priest/King Vran Verusbel,
leader of the cult of the Mad Monks, and their high priestess Delphia, the most
beautiful woman in existence. It is thought by the lords that the death of both
Vran and Delphia would cause the raids to stop. A courageous volunteer is
needed...

YOU, THE ADVENTURER

Framed with a murder, you have been sentenced to a grisly death
and are languishing in jail. It’s the eve of the execution, when you are
suddenly bundled off to face the Lords of Ket! You guessed! They give you a do
or die choice — and you choose to do! Destroying Vran and Delphia is your
ultimate task, and not an easy one, you are warned: both are cunning and
devious...

MOUNTAINS OF KEY

Your mission in this adventure is to reach the far side of the
mountains alive! However, you first have to locate the secret entrance at the
base of the Mountains of Key. This, you are told, lies within a short horse
ride to the east of a small village. Your task is then to successfully
negotiate a route through the strange mountains. Beware: many have entered the
Mountains in the past, never to be seen again.

Not doubting your loyalty for one moment, but to make absolutely sure you
really do stick to your mission, a magic assassin bug called Edgar is placed on
your neck. His orders are to sink his poisonous fangs into you at the slightest
sign of you doing a bunk.

PLAYING AN ADVENTURE

When entering commands, use the verb/noun combination. You will
be told if your command is not understood, or you try doing something
impossible. Here are a few sample commands... Get Sword, Drop Sword, Go North,
Say Hello, Count Coins, Say Hello... You have additional special commands:
Inventory — lists the objects you have, Stat — shows your status and condition,
Score — how well you are doing, Beep — turns off the Speccy keyboard beep, Help
— could be useful, Look — redescribes the current surroundings, Save/Load, and
Quit.

Most commands can be shortened — North N, South S, Up U, Down D etc.

HINTS ’N’ TIPS

Edgar says ‘Don’t just kill everything!’

Once inside the mountains, leave valuables in a safe place for a massive
score.

It is useful to draw a map!

You may find magical items. These may be worn, help you in combat, assist in
solving problems or be of no use at all.

THE VILLAGE OF KET

Wanting to see you safely on your way, we’ve given you this wonderfully
drawn (ta Mel) map of the village of Ket. The paths show the route to the
entrance of the mountains, where the adventure begins proper. But you’re going
to have to complete several tasks before the quests which face you in the
mountains...

This map will help, but you still need to chart the village for yourself to
get started.

ULTIMATE WARRIOR

3-D is a fabulous ‘medium’ isn’t it?
Live the experience! It’s just like being there! Almost. And to prove the point
a super chap called Steven Howlett has written Ultimate Warrior for
CRASH!!! Hurrah! Give that man a clap! (Lots of applause!). Become the
Ultimate Warrior fighting for truth, freedom — and blowing up computers! All
will be revealed...

It’s 2050 (What? Like, ten to nine? — Ed). Get out! No, the year
is 2050 AD. Earth’s governments have been toppled and the only ruling power is
a huge central computer.

This would be fine and dandy if it wasn’t for the fact that, due to a bit of
ram-wobble (A Historian writes: Ram-wobble — first discovered in ZX81s,
wobbling of the rampack makes the computer crash), the central computer has
gone completely barmy! The planet is plunged into chaos!

The thing for it is to call in the Ultimate Warrior, to seek and destroy the
computer before it does any more damage. You are that Ultimate Warrior! Oh
dear.

Armed with your trusty Photon Blaster, a helicopter drops you into the
central city where the computer resides. But watch out for the photon-firing
droids (also driven crackers by the computer) and the moving acid holes which
kill instantly. The computer has additionally set up heaps of traps to try to
destroy you. With only five precious lives, can you destroy the computer before
it destroys you? (Why certainly Stanley!)

Steven Howlett, author of Ultimate Warrior, also runs a
company called Airline who produce a monthly cassette magazine called Spectrum
User and run a mail order service for original games and utilities — see their
ad in this issue. Currently Steven is bashing away at his Spectrum writing his
next game for CRASH. It’s the sequel to the smashing budget game
Snookered, a snooker simulation (surprise!), and it’s called
Snookered II (double surprise!!). Stay tuned to CRASH and you’ll it
have in a few months. Yummy!

Full of amazing tricks and ‘tomfoolery’ is our Flippo! He
leaps! He runs! He kicks paving slabs over! The buffoon!

And thanks to wonderful, wonderful Hewson you can experience his antics
exclusively in CRASH with this wizzo playable demo of the entire first
level!!!

Flippo travels the depths of the Tubular Bells maze, and as he scampers he
kicks the white paving slabs over, so they turn blue or purple. The wag!

Mean creatures, who happen to quite like the colour of the slabs, glide
around the tunnels bashing Flippo whenever possible, and so depleting his
energy. When all the energy of Flippo’s three lives has been used up, off he
pops to the great loopy-bin in the sky.

Bonus treasure chests lie in the maze, and usually have beneficial effects
on Flippo — such as increasing the score or giving him the power to kill the
meanies. Unfortunately there are holes in the maze, and unless Flippo leaps
over them he plummets into deep space. Aw!

So, there you are. We reckon Maze Mania is going to be a smash hit when it’s
released in August and can’t wait to play the full thing. Flippo, you’re as mad
as a kiwi fruit!